A Mystery Dungeon Called Life
by The Word Yukko
Summary: Duquette is an amnesiac pikachu who was found and raised by a family of squirtles. Eight years afterwards he and his best friend and brother Fortis leave home to become explorers. But nothing goes quite as planned; and between Duquette's origins, a decrepit guild, and the daily strangeness of exploration, they find themselves navigating the hardest mystery dungeon of all—life.


**AN: Sup, guys, thanks for reading this fic! It's my first PMD fic for two years, so hopefully I've made some improvements between then and now. Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading it!**

* * *

 _Prologue: Killing Laziness With A Rifle And/Or A Large Dose of Earnest, Non-Ironic Emotions (It's Still Pretty Terrible)_

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought of something really important but forgot it moments later, and spent the next five minutes trying to remember what you were thinking about? Take that feeling of helplessness of frustration and multiply by five, and you might have a sense of the feeling this young pikachu was having.

It was quite obvious to him that something important had just happened. Many different emotions swirled in his head, most prominently fear, sadness, and a slight sense of anger. All of the pieces were there, and yet somehow the specifics of the event escaped him. They escaped him as he walked through the seemingly endless sea of dew-kissed grass, guided only by the moon's faint glimmer, and it escaped him as he collapsed onto the ground, too exhausted and overwhelmed by his warped, visual noise-laced thoughts to continue.

He lie there in the moist grass, the moon casting its cold light onto his fur, providing the only illumination available at the time. Kricketunes chirped all around him, adding another layer to the thick nighttime ambience. His shattered perception contorted these late-night mainstays into disturbing forms - the meadow became a swaying, overcast ocean, the moon a sneering visage, the chirps a chorus of howling wolves. However, these details soon became nothing but white noise, as he was preoccupied with his fleeing memories.

He clutched his head painfully, wracking his brain for some hint of what he was doing. Bits and pieces of his thoughts seemed to decay and disappear, leaving only faint, lingering sensations to indicate that they were ever there.

"_o! I r_u_e _o let y_ _ my b_y! _ _u _ar _e y_u _u_ki_g r_al! Y_ _IL_ _EV_ _A_E MY S_!"

His eyes began to water as he struggled to recall what had happened prior. No matter how much he focused, he could not seem to get a grasp on his memories before they faded. His vision started to form dark spots, Rorschach images that only served to increase his disorientation.

"_! _u l_t g_ _ _m _ht t_s _, yo_ _n_r! _T _O!"

He felt tears streaming down his face, adding their moisture to the grass under him. Only a few memories were left floating around in his head, and he felt them starting to fade as well. Pushing one last time to hold on, he put all of his remaining focus and energy into holding onto the last remaining bits, and miraculously, he managed to capture one faint, frantic voice before it disappeared into the void.

Run, Duquette! RUN!

And that was it. His memories had emptied themselves from his head, that damp towel having been squeezed of its last few drips. It was all gone.

He pressed his paws to his face and broke out in sobs, tears dripping messily onto his arms, adding dark blots to his bright yellow fur. "M-ma...m-a…" he started to moan through staccato breaths. These words meant nothing to him then, but still he cried out helplessly.

"M...ma…"

* * *

"Oh, good grief…"

A lone squirtle trudged through the meadow, looking discouraged, in direct contrast to the weather - the sun, unobstructed by any clouds, shone proudly at the height of daytime, allowing all the early summer colors their full visibility. Though this was undoubtedly a beautiful day, once you see enough of them they become just another pretty sight, and this squirtle had obviously seen many of them in his five years of life. He sighed heavily to himself, rubbing the back of his smooth head absentmindedly.

"Why are they allowed to go to Walrein Cavern and I'm not?" he muttered. "I know more about dungeons than anyone else! Besides, it's not as if I can't handle a few sealeos!" He thought about his parent's warning, given to him almost every time he went out to play - _don't go into Walrein Cave without an adult. It's too dangerous for you ay our age - you're only five, after all. It's for your own safety._

"It's too dangerous, Fortis," he said, his voice a sarcastic imitation of his father's. " _You can't go on your own Fortis. We can't trust you Fortis._ Why is everyone treating me like a child? I'm so sick of it!" He clenched his fists, suddenly incensed, and his mind began to flood with similarly infuriating memories - the time his mom accidentally ate the rawst berry that he'd set aside for himself, the time his parents left him alone with Poly's mom as a babysitter (who never let him leave the house), and the time his dad confiscated his John McDonald books because they were deemed 'too vulgar' for child consumption. Feeling himself beginning to boil over, he shouted " _I'm so sick of all of this!"_ in a childish wail and threw a wild, ill-aimed kick at the ground, intending to take his anger out on the grass. However, he ended up getting more than what he bargained for.

THUMP.

"Ah!" he yelped in surprise, not expecting his foot to actually connect with something other than the ground - and, judging from the painful groans being emitted from the spot where his foot struck, his victim wasn't just a rock or a mound of dirt. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" he apologized profusely to the figure, his head bowed in embarrassment. He lifted his head to get a look at his unlucky victim.

"...Huh?" Fortis rubbed his eyes for a few seconds in disbelief, but when he lifted his hands from his eyes, the same sight appeared - the unmistakable bright yellow, furry body of a pikachu, doubled over and clutching his stomach.

 _But pikachus aren't supposed to be around here!_ he thought, his feelings a mixture of confusion and wonderment. He walked up to the pained mouse and crouched down near him. "H-hey, are you alright?"

"Urgh…" the pikachu groaned in reply, still clutching his stomach. He spoke with a slight-but-noticeable lisp, his s' slurred into a thin mush. "Just five more minutes…"

"H-hey, you do know meadows don't make for the best beds, right?" Fortis chuckled, his joke hanging awkwardly in the air. It took a second for the pikachu to process his words.

"Huh?" he said after a few moments, and finally, the pikachu slowly began to open his eyes. "Ehh…" he whined as the sun's rays needled his eyes. Slowly but surely, though, he cranked his eyelids open until finally, after his pupils finished their dilation, his surroundings came into full view.

He sat up, wincing slightly at the aching, strangely lethargic sensation pulsing through his body, and took a few moments to scan this unfamiliar environment. All around him was a vibrant, green meadow, with white and yellow flowers interspersed between the blades of grass. A slight, warm breeze blew through the foliage, causing the foliage to sway peacefully like fishing boats on a calm ocean. Off in the distance, the sea's waves ebbed and flowed calmly amongst wooden platforms. Huts lined these platforms with grid-like precision, and he could vaguely spot the outlines of pokemon going about their daily business on their surfaces. It all had a sense of serenity to it - one that the pikachu might've enjoyed better had he known exactly where he was.

But as pretty as it all was, nothing about this landscape rung a bell.

"...Uh, where am I?" he said finally, looking up at Fortis with a confused expression. He tilted his head curiously in response.

"Wait, you don't know where you are?" he asked, and the pikachu shook his head in reply. "You're in Altaria Meadow!" he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The pikachu just stared at him blankly. "...Agua Village? Aipu Sea? Any of that ring a bell?"

"No…" the pikachu said, obviously having no idea what Fortis was talking about.

Confused as to why this displaced pikachu was unaware of his location, Fortis pondered this for a moment, his blue features scrunching up in thought. This pikachu clearly had no idea where he was, he was alone, and was obviously very confused...he could've sworn there was a term for this…

"Um...do you have...uh…" Fortis wracked his brain for some hint of the word, but found himself stuck - no matter how much he thought, he couldn't seem to coax the word out of his subconscious. "Erm...it ends with thesia…" he said sheepishly, hoping the pikachu would know what he was talking about.

"...Synesthesia?" he offered, and Fortis' features lit up instantly.

"Yeah! Yeah! That's it!" He nodded his head vigorously. "It's, like, when you can't remember things! So you must have synesthesia!" The pikachu thought this over for a second. Yeah, it definitely seemed like a possibility. So, he voiced this to Fortis, who nodded sagely, glad that he was on the mark.

"Well, can you remember anything?" Fortis asked, tilting his head slightly. "Where you're from? Your name? Who your parents are?"

 _Remember anything, huh…_ he thought, and scoured his brain for any remaining memories. Unfortunately, he didn't have much luck - all that remained in his head were vague, lingering sensations of pain and confusion that only served to frustrate him. Even last night's events eluded him, strangely enough. However, he did manage to scrounge up one memory from the pits of his mind - a scuffed, hazy voice, shouting desperately in the back of his mind.

 _Run, Duquette! Run!_

 _Duquette, huh…_ He turned the name over in his head like a strange, unfamiliar object. He felt so detached from the name and the memory in general that he knew that it could just as easily have been someone else's name, but he figured it was as good a lead as any, for now.

"Well...I think my name's Duquette." he said. "But that's all I can remember."

"Hmm...so it really is synesthesia." Fortis commented, before realizing that he hadn't yet introduced himself. "Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot to introduce myself." He held his hand out to Duquette, partially meant as a handshake and partially to pick him up off the grass. Duquette accepted, and after a quick shake, he pulled him up. As Duquette lurched in a semi-circle, struggling for a moment to orient himself, Fortis spoke. "My name's Fortis, the soon-to-be number one explorer _of all time!_ " he spoke in a proud, resonant register, as if his success had been predetermined. "Nice to meet you!"

"Uh...okay?" Duquette replied, not quite sure what he meant by that. "Well, my name's Duquette."

"Y-yeah, I know," Fortis said, confused. "You just told me that."

"Well, I thought it would be weird if I didn't reply," Duquette said sheepishly.

The two stood there in silence for what felt like hours, at first staring at each other, but soon deliberately trying to avoid eye contact - Duquette gave the hundred-yard-stare to some ill-defined point to his right, while Fortis' eyes flitted around nervously. An awkward silence hung over the two, the only sounds coming from the quiet, indifferent breeze, and they both acted as if they were flanked on all sides by sleeping electrodes, each unwilling to make a move.

 _Maybe I should say something…_ Duquette thought. _This has gone on for too long._ So, steeling his nerves, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Well -" "What -" they started simultaneously, but both stopped once they realized the other was going to speak. However, neither of them finished their sentences. Another brief silence occurred before Duquette spoke up.

"Er, you go ahead," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I was just gonna make a joke anyways."

"O-okay," Fortis said awkwardly, a bit weirded out by the non-exchange that had just occurred. "So, uh, what are you going to do now?"

"Huh?" Duquette said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, you don't seem to have anywhere to go, do you?"

…

"Oh." Duquette's eyes widened as the full implications of his situation hit him. He was alone with no memories, no known family members, no home, and no money. In other words, he was basically screwed.

"By the looks of it, you don't." Fortis said.

"Uh…" What was he supposed to do now?

"Hm…" Fortis rubbed his chin for a few seconds, thinking of a way to help Duquette, before snapping his fingers in a sudden burst of inspiration. "I know! We could go see Officer Fry! He could file a report or something!"

 _Hm? Yeah, that could probably work…_ Duquette thought.

"Well? Let's go right now!" Fortis said, taking his silence as a sign of agreement. He started walking towards the village in the near distance, beckoning Duquette to follow him, which he did, though his bones still ached and creaked. As they strolled through the foliage, Fortis started talking about something, but Duquette didn't pay attention - he was preoccupied with something else.

He found himself staring at his limbs oddly. His yellow, furry limbs. It was strange; they felt weirdly unfamiliar, and yet he couldn't ever remember them being any other way. For all he knew, he was this creature the whole of his life, and yet something...felt _wrong_ about this. In particular, he could've sworn they were all a bit longer.

"Hey, Fortis?" Duquette spoke up whilst still staring at his hands, interrupting his rant about whatever-the-hell. Fortis looked at him with his large, glassy eyes.

"Yeah? What's wrong?"

"Well...what species am I?" he asked unsurely, prompting Fortis to gasp in surprise.

"Geez, you really _did_ forget everything!" he said. "You're a pikachu, y'know! One of the most iconic pokemon of all time!"

"Uh, really?" This was new information. Fortis nodded.

"Yeah! We see you so much you've become oversaturated! You're everywhere! Advertisements, books, plays, music…"

Duquette thought about it for a second, tuning out Fortis' explanation. That name did feel somewhat familiar. _So, I guess I'm a pikachu, then…_ He still felt sort of strange in his body, but decided not to think about it too much - there was no real point in speculation, he figured, cobsidering he couldn't remember anything even if he tried. Besides, it wasn't like he was, say turned from a human to a pokemon, right? That'd be ridiculous. No, if there was something wrong, he'd find out later. And so, for the rest of the walk, he lost himself in the scenery and the warmth of the sea breeze.

* * *

Though Duquette wasn't exactly paying full attention during the walk, he was still perceptive enough to notice a subtle shift in the atmosphere. Turning his brain back on, he noticed Fortis had stopped talking and had ground to a halt, and seemed to be squinting against the sun, trying to look at something off in the distance.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Duquette asked.

"Is that...Lyle?" Fortis muttered. Looking over his shoulder, Duquette saw the outline of a small, rounded figure, bouncing hurriedly towards them on a ball-shaped tail. "What's he doing here?"

"Fortis! Fortis!" The figure shouted in a high-pitched register, and came into full view as it neared them, the sun glancing off its baby-blue body. "Fortis!"

"L-Lyle?" Fortis said as it came to a halt in front of him, looking up at him with a worried, frantic expression, visibly sweating from either stress or the summer heat. "What's wrong?"

"It's Otis!" Lyle said, obviously panicked. "H-he got stuck in Walrein Cave!" Upon hearing this, Fortis' eyes widened.

"What? Why?!" he shouted, beginning to share in Lyle's panic, a hint of dread creeping into his voice.

"T-there was a walrein!" Lyle said, shaking as he recounted the events. "We got attacked, a-and I managed to escape, but when I ran away, he wasn't behind me!"

"Oh no…" Fortis whispered anxiously, tensing up. Duquette had no idea what they were talking about, but judging from their reactions and the general atmosphere, it obviously wasn't good. The gears in Fortis' head seemed to be spinning at a hundred miles-per-hour, and it didn't take long for him to look up at Lyle, the anxiety still present but obscured by a sense of determination that spread like a tidal wave over his features.

"We have to go. Now." He said determinedly, surprising both Lyle and Duquette. The former party gulped out of relief and nodded, still trembling slightly.

"Y-yes!" He said, and they both sped off towards the village, seemingly forgetting Duquette's presence.

"H-hey, wait!" He said, holding his hand out to stop them, but they had already gone. "Oh, darn…" He muttered to himself. "Looks I have no choice…" And with that, he ran off after them, double-timing it in order to catch up. _It's gonna be a long day…_

* * *

Finally catching up with the pair, Duquette came to a halt behind them, wheezing from his overexertion. "G-geez, I really wasn't in the right c-condition to do this…" he half-muttered, half-gasped to no one in particular, but Lyle and Fortis either didn't notice or didn't care as they stared at the gaping maw of the cavern that loomed ominously in front of them, the interior obscured by darkness.

"S-so what are we gonna do?" Lyle squeaked, looking nervously at Fortis, who glanced at him strangely.

"What do you mean? We're gonna go save him!" Fortis said, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Upon hearing this Lyle became a shake-weight, trembling as if the summer heat had been inverted and replaced with clouds of falling snow.

"Oh no." he said. "Oh no no no, dude. I can't go."

"Why not?" Fortis said, a hint of anger swirling in his voice, wrapping around and emphasizing certain syllables as he spoke. "You're the one who left him there!"

"T-that's not my fault!" Lyle yelped, trying to defend himself. "I thought he was right behind me! Besides, Otis m-made me go in the first place! I kept telling him that it was a bad idea, but he kept on telling me that it would be fine, and then we went, and then…" he trailed off. "I can't go. I was so scared…" His head lowered in shame and sadness, causing Fortis to groan.

"Ugh…" he muttered. "What am I gonna do now…" His eyes wandered around, literally searching for a solution, before landing on Duquette, who had been listening in silence the whole time. His face lit up immediately, and he walked up to him.

"Hey, Duquette," he said. "I know this is a bit sudden, and you just woke up, and you have synesthesia and all, but can you help me save my friend?"

"Huh?" Duquette said, and thought about it for a moment. "Hmm...do you mind if I give my opinion here?"

"Huh?" Fortis said, confused. "Uh, okay?"

"That's not a good idea." he said bluntly, causing Fortis to wince. "Why don't we just tell an adult back at your village? From what I heard, this is pretty dangerous, and we're not old enough to be risking our lives for this." That was what he said, but honestly, it could also partially be attributed to laziness on his part. He really didn't feel like doing anything too physically demanding at the moment.

"But the village is half-a-mile away!" Fortis argued. "In the time it takes us to get there, Otis could be hurt, or worse! We have to go, now!"

"Sorry, but I'm not going." he said, crossing his arms. "It's too dangerous. We need to tell someo-" he started, but was interrupted as Fortis clamped his hands on his shoulders, looking at him directly in his eyes with a pleading expression.

"Please," he said, his voice dripping with something resembling desperation. "I know that what I'm asking is unreasonable, but you're the only person who can help me right now. If we wait any longer, Otis might die, or get hurt, and I can't go alone. Please." Something in his voice made it sound like a foregone conclusion - he knew that Duquette would refuse.

And yet, something about the way he looked at him made Duquette think twice. He knew he could argue about the logic of his plan for hours, refuting anything that Fortis could say in favor of this plan. It had enough holes in it to bring down a zeppelin. However, Fortis' pitiful, pleading expression made him freeze in his tracks. He realized that there was one thing that no amount of arguing could discredit, and that was _emotion._ He felt stunned for a moment, and found himself actually, seriously contemplating going along with him, despite his reservations.

 _Ugh…_ he inwardly groaned after a few moments of deep thought. _I guess there's no choice._ "Fine." he said, causing Fortis to look up in surprise. "I'll go."

"R-really?" Fortis' hands removed themselves from Duquette's shoulders and his eyes glowed happily, though a trace of disbelief could still be heard in his voice. "You'd really do that for me?" Duquette nodded in response, absolved of any last remaining doubt. Fortis seemed stunned, almost unsure of what to do for a few seconds, but he eventually shook it off and returned to the same determined expression he had earlier. This time, though, his anxiety was replaced by a glowing sense of confidence. He turned from Duquette to face Lyle, who had been staring at them the whole time.

"Lyle." he said, causing the azurill to jump in surprise. "I need you to go tell Officer Fry about this, just in case anything bad happens, alright?"

Lyle gulped. "W-will you guys be okay?" he asked, his eyes flitting nervously between Fortis and Duquette. He seemed unconvinced that the two could do it.

"Don't worry about us!" Fortis said with a confident grin, giving Lyle a thumbs up. "We'll be fine! Now go!" Lyle nodded, giving them one last tentative look before bouncing off as fast as his tail could take him. Fortis and Duquette watched him hop off into the distance, before looking at each other, both sure of what they had to do.

"Alrighty then, Duquette," Fortis smiled. "Let's go!" Duquette nodded, suddenly feeling more sure about this plan. Maybe it was his new friend's infectious sense of confidence, or maybe it was due to his prior realization. Either way, he believed that they could actually do it.

"Okay, then, _partner._ " he said, finding himself smiling back. "Let's do it." And with that, the two walked into the darkness of the cave, never once looking back.

Yup. It was gonna be a long, long day indeed.

* * *

 **AN: The more I read this chapter, the more I see how similar this is to the beginning of the PMD2 games. Amnesi - no, I'm sorry, _synesthesiac_ protagonist wakes up and is found by the partner, who then ropes them into assisting them with something. Oh well. I've gotten to the point with this chapter that I've edited it so many times that I feel the only thing left to do is to throw a bit of bait out there and see what bites. It's still pretty terrible, but please, I encourage you to tell me exactly what's terrible, so I can improve upon it in the future. Leave me a review, I'm not squeamish.**

 **Also, just to let you know, I belong to a forum called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Writers United, which was instrumental in helping me get this chapter done. We're basically a support group for anyone writing a PMD fic, offering advice, encouragement, and Beyblade-dubbed shitposts. Especially the latter. So, if you're into that or you're writing a PMD fic yourself, check us out!**


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